straightforward graffiti artists; it’s more of an illustrative movement in most places, especially in the developed world. When I was painting ‘that way’ [politically] and was arrested a couple of times, my name was known to the police, so it was difficult to keep playing ‘that game’ unless I was going to completely change my identity. I had already been done twice and the third time I was going to get locked up. So I started thinking, I had always also worked with stencils, you know early on, and I guess I saw it as a shortcut to creating an image quicker than having to draw it slowly. I think I was always an impatient kid, so the stencil form was very appealing to me. I soon realised that it was too risky to paint a ‘real piece’, so I moved into stencil painting and worked more as a screen printer. Again, the influences came from the ‘hip-hop thing’ where I’d seen a lot of graffiti art and also had been exposed to people like Futura 2000 and then Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring. Through people like Jean and Keith I discovered Pop Art, which I’d not really taken enough notice of; Warhol screen printed massive areas and became a huge influence on how I used stencils and colour. At the time, a lot of Bristolbased artists were really anti it [stencilling]. It was all about the free hand, free spirit ideology and it took a long time for people to understand that stencilling was innovative and exciting. What sorts of things were painting at that time? You have quite a political head, has that always run through you work? Most of the time it became a bit of a game, with us painting on the street with masks on, until I got arrested. It was still all a game until the second arrest, community service, fines and a “next time you’re going down for it”. I was keeping my head down became it had gotten a little bit more serious as the time went on. Because there was a giant amount of damage done to buildings by taggers, the Police were trying to create examples out of people, so it wasn’t so much political, but more a slightly childish cat and mouse game that served its purpose at the time I guess. After being caught a couple of times you moved into a more ‘controlled ’ setting - how did it differ from having the streets as your canvas, compared to a more guarded environment? To earn a bit of cash, I did some things for mates; working on their restaurants, café’s and stuff, I kept working in a mural form as opposed to making that snap to canvas. At the time there wasn’t an urban art scene where my work would have had any value. What was happening in the New York art scene at
the time didn’t really translate to the rest of the world; everywhere else was just an imitation. My first pieces were all over a room in a pub called the Montpelier Hotel, where the local young villagers used to hang out. That was where I did my first painting and they [the owners] let me use the garage in return for it. That garage became my studio for about four years. What I was doing then, informed what I did on the first Massive album, because at that point the Wild Bunch had sort of like split off and moved on. Me and Mushroom started working with Neneh Cherry and Cameron McVey on some tracks for Neneh’s album and they encouraged us to get into the studio and make our first record, which became Blue Lines, so that was obviously a big distraction from the art scene at the time. I’d gotten into this stencil thing and I’d done a couple of shows, but the music became the main flame for me, but when the record was nearly finished we started talking about the [album cover] artwork. Everyone seemed really keen on me creating the sleeve artwork. I was inspired by an old Stiff Little Fingers logo from the Inflammable Material album as the sleeve image for Blue Lines; that particular flame logo is punk lineage for me. It’s funny you should just mention Blue Lines, because you have two Massive Attack tattoos; one of the Blue Lines “flame” on your left arm, and a larger one similar to the beetle on the cover of Mezzanine; why these and do you plan anymore? The first one was of the Blue Lines flame, the second was from Protection, the third on my back is the Mezzanine beetle, and the forth is the 100th Window exploding glass figures, which I wasn’t sure would translate onto the skin as tattoo art. It’s one of those things that feels a bit odd having your own [art on your body]. I don’t have any of my own pictures on my walls at home, only other people’s art that I like. I just try to collect lots of different pieces that feel a part of a whole; to me that’s an evolution of when the pieces of art has come from, but I would never have my own stuff on my body. Your music encompasses a lot of collaborations, whereas you work independently when creating art, do you have a preference and does art provide you with a ‘sanctuary ’? Which is more enjoyable? I’ve got a show to do next year, and I need to get my arse into gear, but I’ve not really been that inspired. I’ve been more excited about planning what we’re going to do on stage [on tour] rather than the actual music. It’s [being on tour] like shooting your own movie, a way to share information and translate your ideas. A lot of the artwork that we’ve been working on has incorporated LED strips, and molding them into a standalone piece; it’s been a distraction for me, an easier option than standing and painting for hours. It’s bizarre,